The English language contains a variety of rules around spelling, and just when children think they’re getting to grips with those, they happen upon something even weirder, surname pronunciations.
Take, for example, the sound ‘ough.’ Surely there’s no confusion over something as simple as that, is there?
Unfortunately not, because those four letters can be pronounced nine different ways depending upon which words in which they appear.
This is because there are 44 phonemes or sounds in English but when I last checked we’ve only got only 26 letters in the English alphabet with which to construct those sounds.
Nine ways to pronounce ‘ough’
- thorough, borough
- enough, rough, tough
- cough, trough
- hiccough (also spelled hiccup)
- lough (rhymes with lock) a Scottish/Irish word for a lake
- through (sounds like ‘threw’)
- thought, bought, brought, fought, wrought, sought, nought
- though, dough, although
- plough, bough, drought
Is it any wonder, therefore, that surnames, which are to all intents and purposes made up words, can end up over time being pronounced in ways that appear to bear no resemblance to or connection with their spelling?
History of surnames
A cursory glance in any history textbook will reveal England has, over many decades, been settled by peoples from various other countries including Vikings, Angles, Saxons, Germanic tribes, Normans, and the Romans.
Later influences came from Christianity, which helped to introduce Ancient Greek, Latin and ebrew derived surnames into the English language.
Whether it was following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 or the Protestant Reformation from 1517, when a new order makes significant changes those wanting to align with that new order would often adjust their surnames as a way of showing allegiance.
During later years when ‘the Thin Red Line’ stretched across the globe, English settlers brought back additional new words from those newly visited countries.
As England became a more industrial and commercial environment new names were created that reflected the careers or businesses of the growing middle classes, and those new names then underwent nuanced spelling changes to allow further differentiation between similarly named families.
During the Victorian era, words taken from mythology and literature started being used for surnames, as did the names of flowers, gemstones and suchlike.
Examples of surnames with curious pronunciation
Here is a list of English surnames, along with a guide to their pronunciation. It should be noted, however, that some families have their own traditional pronunciaitons, so be ready to follow their lead where required.
Althorp – Althrup, Altrup, Atrup, Ultrup
Auchinlech – Af-lek
Bagehot – Badgit
Beauchamp – Beacham
Beaulieu – Bewley
Belvoir – Beaver
Blount – Blunt
Blyth – Bly
Bohun – Boon
Cais – Keeys
Cherwell – Charwell
Cholmondley – Chumley
Cockburn – Coburn
Coke – Cook
Colquhoun – Calhoon
Cowper – Cooper
Crespigny – Crepiny
De la Warr – Della-ware
Devereux – Dever-uks
Featherstonehaugh – Fanshaw
Fiennes – Fines
Glamis – Glarms
Harewood – Harwood
Hertford – Harford
Home – Hume
Houghton – Horton, Howton
Keynes – Kaynz
Knollys – Nowls
Le Fanu – Leff-new
Legh – Lee
Magdalene – Maudlin
Mainwaring – Mannering
Majoribanks – Marchbanks
Menzies – Ming-is
Poulett – Pawlet
Powell – Pole
Ruthven – Riven
Sandys – Sandz
St Clair – Sinclair
St John – Sin-jen, Sin-jin
Scrope – Scroop
Seymour – Seamer
Sherard – Sherud
Shrewsbury – Shrowsbury
Theobald – Tibbald
Tyrwhitt – Tirit
Waldegrave – Wargrave
Wavertree – Wawtry
Wermyss – Wemz, Weemz
Woolfhardisworthy – Woolsey
Worcester – Woo-ster
Wymondham – Wind-am
How to use this list
Whilst it’s unlikely your child will be presented with more than a few of these surnames, by reading through the list, and reading out their pronunciation OUT LOUD they will help embed those quirky soundings into their memory.
This is because it’s the pronunciation, not the spelling, which needs to be learned and that’s only really achieved by saying the names out loud.
Recognising that these apparent ambiguities exist may well help when dealing with trickier comprehension passages or other sentence construction questions.
Please let me know if there are any other surnames I’ve missed which have an unexpected pronunciation and I’ll add them to the list.